Adam Braver

Features Editor at The Foothill Dragon Press

Example of Initiative Taken #2: The Cinderella Play Review

About three weeks ago, Buena High School was putting on the play "Cinderella". Practically all the other journalists from the Foothill Dragon Press were too busy to cover it, so I decided to take the matter into my own hands. I went to watch the play, and wrote a review about it soon after. However, the problem was noted that there was no photo for it. So, I went ahead and visited the play again, captured photos for it, and the article was finally published. That showed initiative on my part because I went out of my way twice so the review could be published.

Example of Initiative Taken #1: Occupy Ventura

During the midst of October, when the Occupy Wall Street movements were spreading across the country, I was informed that the movements were finally about to reach Ventura. Excited about the prospect over the impact of the Occupy movements, I volunteered to report the Occupy Ventura incident in front of the government center as well as on the actual march on Main Street the following day (the latter was alongside Editor-in-Chief Anaika Miller). Both articles were published within 24 hours, and both had served their purposes.

Character Trait

Concern

Ever since I was young, I was always trying to make other people feel better. When I was in third grade, I noticed that a fellow peer of mine was shoved to the ground by a couple of older students. After the older students had left, I immediately rushed towards the fallen student, helped him up, and led him to the nurse's office. On the way there, I even attempted to comfort him.

My reasoning behind that action was that helping others feel better would eventually cause myself to feel better. In other words, it was essentially a cycle of beneficial actions and consequences, all based on the mentality of selflessness and concern. It was with that same mentality that I entered the Foothill Dragon Press at the beginning of the school year, hoping to spread happiness by expressing concern in the workplace.

I believe that I actually did accomplish that goal. I believe that I was always looked upon as being a social guy who always enjoyed talking to others, after all. I did not talk, however, just for the simple sake of mindless chit-chat: I talked because others within journalism needed it. For example, there was a time when a certain journalist was debating with themselves over whether or not to apply for an elite editor's position. I gave that person words of confidence, and told them that anything was possible as long as they pushed themselves for it. I think my words of encouragement helped: that person is now the incoming Assistant Editor-in-Chief, and hopefully feels fairly confident about themselves.

I also tried my best to always smile within journalism, even during times that I was not particularly happy. I did it, solely for the fact that if I was always smiling, it would cause others to smile as well. That may certainly sound cheesy, but then again, it undoubtedly shows my trait of concern.

I must say that I was glad to find concern as one of the traits in the Foothill Dragon Press pyramid. I believe it is extremely vital to have, and I was glad to have been able to demonstrate it while I was in journalism.

Best Work

Article #1: Occupy Ventura rallies at government center

Many months ago, tens of thousands of citizens across the country were angry over the growth of economic inequality in America, and blamed large corporations and the top 1% of income earners for their troubles. The Occupy Wall Street movements, which stemmed from that idea, started in New York City and spread across the nation, eventually even arriving in Ventura. I decided to help cover the movements, and wrote a very informative article about the Ventura protestors who were rallying in front of the government center. I gathered in the article a plethora of different quotes from a wide variety of people, from college students to the homeless. In the end, it worked out well, and many people read the article.

While I was pondering over what would make a good spotlight article that would draw in many readers' attention, the thought hit me how tired I was. It was then that I realized that reporting about teenagers' lack of sleep would make an excellent article. The article itself featured many students who were losing hours of sleep for various reasons (advanced placement classes, sports, extracurriculars, etc.) and how it was affecting them. I managed to contact an assistant doctor from the Sleep Center of Orange County and quoted him in the article, as well as different teachers' perspectives on the whole subject of sleep deprivation among students. The article received many comments, as well as many views.

Not too long ago, there was a lot of controversy over the initialization of having the freshman FIRE program last for one year rather than the traditional two semesters. After being asked to write an opinion article about it, I went ahead and exploited the idea of breaking away from the tradition: was it truly fair to suddenly force the ninth graders who had earned their semester of freedom from FIRE to keep being enrolled in it? I also stated that it was unfair not only for the FIRE students, but the FIRE leaders as well. The article received many views, seventeen ratings, and even an intelligent comment. Indeed, it was the right time for the article to be written, and it seemed successful.

Skills

Being a member of the Foothill Dragon Press over the last year has taught me a plethora of skills I had not fully grasped or even known before. For the sake of neatness, I will list them all through bullet points:

Informative Writing: Not only did I learn how to write quickly, but I learned how to write in journalistic structure as well as in an informative style

Photography: Even though I was mainly a writer throughout the year, there were instances where I had to use a camera, and have gotten a bit more of a feel for it

Work Relations: I realized in journalism that expressing proper and effective communication with fellow journalists is always very crucial to an efficient newspaper

Hands-On Site Experience: While I was not the one who directly coordinated publishing articles on the Dragon Press site, I got a taste as to what it was like and how frustrating it could be a times

The Role of an Editor: Being an editor this year, I learned how to communicate with the people in my section and gained the experience about the hands-on editing of articles

Community

Excluding journalism, I have done a wide variety of different extracurriculars. Just as with the previous section, I shall also make this section bullet-pointed for the sake of neatness:

Speech and Debate: I love participating in this. I am very much a man of forensics, and have been quite successful throughout the year in speech and debate. I qualified for the 2012 speech and debate state tournament in San Fransisco, and was voted as the team's next official Speech Captain.

Associated Student Body: While this may also be a class, I felt it was necessary to mention. I have served as the Junior Class Vice President of ASB this year, and helped to plan prom. I have helped with many other numerous events on campus over the year as well, and have essentially served as a student leader of the school.

Clubs: I have been a member of many clubs, including: Political Action Awareness Club (of which, I have been chosen to serve as the next Vice President), Culinary Arts Club, Speech Club, and the California Scholarship Federation.